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ys mystery box

In about a month Youth Specialties is relocating a few miles to the east in El Cajon, California. As part of the move we have to purge a lot of books. And when I say a lot of books, I literally mean tons of miscellaneous Youth Specialties resources!

Typically, a company would just fill a dumpster with this and send it to a landfill. But we looked at this mountain of books and DVDs and recognized that we could give them to people who would use them AND we could help benefit a Christian organization in San Diego that is doing amazing things mentoring inner-city students to become first generation college students. (If you went to NYWC 2008, you may remember when we highlighted their Seriously Ridiculous story.)

With that, the idea of The Mystery Box was born.

How it Works

1. Make a donation of $20 (or more) to Reality Changers. [Learn about Reality Changers here. Make your donation here.] < – WIN FOR REALITY CHANGERS!
2. Youth Specialties will mail you a box of at least 4 resources. (May include books, curriculum, DVD, or other YS resource.)

@adam- you are very funny. Clearly I forgot I was going to shoot that night when I left for work in a super hurry!

Fun side note to this video/story. While Ian and I were there to shoot this with Chris, a student of his spent 30 minutes talking to the group about his trip to the East Coast last weekend. He was offered free rides to both Columbia and Harvard. They flew him out to help him decide between the two. (He chose Harvard)

Just proof that Reality Changers really is helping to change the reality of students in the toughest neighborhoods of San Diego. Ian and I were shocked!

I’m Mark Oestreicher

I'm a partner in The Youth Cartel, providing services and resources for individual youth workers and organizations. I’ve been married to Jeannie for 30 years, and have two great kids: Riley (22) and Max (18).
Here's The Youth Cartel's website.
twitter: @markosbeard
instagram: @whyismarko